In a conventional wire cutting and stripping apparatus, insulated wire is fed axially to a cutting and stripping unit where a given length of wire is cut or severed and slugs of insulation are cut and stripped from the ends of the cut length.
In one type of cutting and stripping apparatus, the cutting unit includes a pair of cooperating cutting blades, and cooperating stripping blades are located both downstream and upstream from the cutting blades. After a predetermined length of wire has been fed by an upstream feeding unit to the cutting and stripping unit, the cutting blades are moved toward each other causing the blades to sever the wire and simultaneously cause the stripping blades to cut the insulation. Wire gripping units, located both upstream and downstream from the cutting and stripping unit, grip the wire as well as the cut length and move the wire and cut length in opposite directions, thereby stripping the insulation from the ends of the wire and from the cut length.
In other conventional cutting and stripping apparatus, only a single pair of stripping blades are employed, which are located downstream of the cutting blades. In this type of apparatus, the wire is fed in both forward and reverse directions by feed units located both upstream and downstream of the cutting and stripping unit to provide the programmed cutting and stripping action.